Teachers trained in Nigeria and Ghana are no longer eligible to apply for Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) through the direct application route in England.
The change took effect on September 9, according to the UK Department for Education (DfE), which said applicants from eligible countries must meet strict requirements covering their teaching qualifications, professional recognition and employment history.
Under the revised rules, countries seeking eligibility for the QTS application route must have a national regulator that can verify a teacher’s professional standing. Applicants must also provide authenticated employment references.
The DfE said Nigeria and Ghana did not meet the reference-verification requirement.
According to the department, more than 70 per cent of QTS applications from teachers trained in Nigeria and Ghana included employment references sent from general email services such as Gmail and Hotmail rather than official school or institutional email addresses.
The department said this made it more difficult for assessors to verify applicants’ employment records and resulted in additional work and resources being required during the assessment process.
India has also been removed from the list of countries whose teachers can use the QTS application route. The DfE attributed the decision to the absence of a national regulator capable of confirming the professional standing of teachers.
With the changes, South Africa is currently the only African country remaining on the list of countries whose teachers can apply through the QTS route.
Requirements for QTS applicants
Teachers applying for QTS through the eligible-country route must provide a valid passport and hold a degree considered equivalent to a UK bachelor’s degree.
They must also be recognised as qualified professional teachers in the country where they received their teacher training and provide evidence that they have completed any mandatory induction requirements necessary for full registration.
Applicants are required to have at least nine months of teaching experience gained after qualifying as a teacher.
They must also submit evidence that their qualifications allow them to teach children between the ages of five and 16.
Employment references are another key requirement. The UK Department for Education said these references must come from email addresses associated with the official domains of the schools where the applicants worked.
Alternative routes remain available
The DfE said teachers from countries that are no longer eligible for the QTS application service can consider other routes into teaching in England.
Although Qualified Teacher Status is preferred by most schools, the department noted that individual schools have discretion to consider teachers through alternative qualification pathways.
This is because teachers in England are employed directly by schools rather than by the UK Department for Education.
For Nigerian and Ghanaian teachers seeking to work in England, the removal from the direct QTS application route therefore does not necessarily prevent them from pursuing teaching opportunities, but they may need to meet different requirements through alternative routes.
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